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Telephone (01623) 861054 Facsimile (01623) 836665 E-mail: office@wellowhouseschool.co.uk

A Half-Termly Newsletter from Wellow House School Wellow Newark Nottinghamshire

From The Headmaster

I am enjoying my final term at Wellow House School reflecting on lots of fond memories generated over the

past twelve years. It has been a great honour to lead such a wonderful school through testing times and a

period that has seen a lot of development of the site. I trust the new team will continue to develop the school

long into the future and maintain the ethos that you and past Wellovians bought into and helped foster over the

years since Robin and Elspeth Forbes founded it in 1971.

The first half term has brought with it a very mixed bag of weather, which has affected the number of fixtures

we have been able to fulfil. There have certainly been an unusual number of coughs and colds, which have led

to more days’ absence, of pupils and staff, than throughout the mild spring term. Hopefully, all will return in

good health to give their end of year examinations their best shot after some productive revision. As I remind

the pupils every year, the correction week is the important week where we all learn from our mistakes. As

Frank Wilczek stated, ‘If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a

big mistake’.

We welcome back Joanna Crook and Rebekah Hawley after their maternity leave. We trust they will settle

back into the routines of school life quickly and soon feel that they have never been away. We also welcome

Kathryn Reast back into the Prep department after her successful work with Year 2 in Pre-Prep. We have a

good number of new starters in the school this term, seven in total across the year groups, which bodes well for

the future, and a number of trial days coming up in the summer term.

Salvete

Alexander Guest Arlo Dolby

Macy Dunkinson Samuel Robinson

Max Dunkinson Freya Moss

Chloe Dunkinson

We wish them all long and happy careers here at

Wellow House School and trust we will be able

to uncover whatever talents they may possess.

Valete

Lysander Starkey

It was with great sadness I had inform you that

Mr Neil Houghton passed away just before the

start of the term. Brian Jones and I represented

the school at his funeral and Mr Jones produced

an obituary that you can read here on the next page. ABOVE: Over 70% of Year 8 have won scholarships!

Vol 22 Number 5 27th May 2016

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Neil Houghton

Of course, a fitting obituary for Neil

Houghton would take about 45 minutes to

read and leave your head spinning. Cricket

has Dickie Bird; English Table Tennis had

Neil Houghton. They were stamped out of the

same mould of eccentric sports enthusiasts.

RIGHT: The 1999 Table Tennis Team,

with trophies from The IAPS National

Prep Schools’ Championships, The

Worksop League and the Notts Schools’

Championships.

This school team picture shows two IAPS national champions and the

son of a table tennis world champion, who heard about us from the other

side of the world and sent his son to Wellow. It is easy to forget what a

force the school used to be in the world of table tennis. Neil’s best pupil

became UK schools champion, his Derbyshire county side was national

champions many times and he helped at least a dozen boys to reach

England standard. He coached at Wellow for over 25 years, supporting

our players at numerous tournaments and coaching our pupils to two

national titles, two Worksop League titles and county schools’ titles too

numerous to mention. He helped me look after the boarders for three

years, giving me an evening break by supervising prep sessions. His academic abilities were formidable: he had

an M.Ed in Health Education and twenty years’ experience as a biology teacher and prep sessions showed that

he was also a sound mathematician and Latin grammarian.

Some of you will know that I led Outdoor Pursuits for many years. Neil was my source of objective

information about obscure medical conditions and he told me what I had to do to enable children to take part

who might otherwise have been left at home. When I turned up at Health and Safety Committee Meetings

apparently well informed about the risks of Legionnaires’ disease or Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, it was due to

the briefing I received from Neil. He helped your children in many ways you never knew of. English Table

Tennis will definitely be a less colourful sport without him.

Brian Jones

Elspeth Forbes

Elspeth Forbes, Nick Forbes’ mother, also passed away during the

first week of the term. Wellow House School owes her much for her

contribution during its early years. Mrs Lynda Milner has kindly

produced an obituary for her, below, as Charles Kay and Brian Jones

were very much influenced by her contribution to the development of

Wellow House School in its early days, with a largely boarding

community, which she played a major role in.

The successes of both Cundall Manor and Wellow House could

never have been achieved without the partnership of Robin and

Elspeth Forbes. It is them that we have to thank for the unique ethos

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they engendered.

‘Missis’, as Elspeth was always addressed, was much more than the Headmaster’s wife, taking a full part in the

day to day cleaning and catering supported by a minimal number of staff; she managed the laundry for the

whole school and prescribed much more than the basic medical needs of the boarders. It was always difficult to

prise the last few customers out of the evening surgery before bedtime where many of the day’s achievements

and disappointments were sympathetically analysed. A small handful of Strepsils or a spoonful of jungle juice

sorted out most problems.

Many will remember the bat gas, a distinctively scented air sanitizer, which was delivered from a large pump

up spray gun. Missis had a routine every evening to spray the dormitories and any bodies which happened to

get in the way as she did her rounds. This was repeated in the mornings in the classrooms before lessons, no

doubt to kill off any day bugs!

There was, however, one time of the evening when the sitting room door was shut (which was most unusual as

children were allowed to wander in at any time of the day) and a notice went on the door, ‘No knocking on this

door before 8 o’clock’. This was Missis’ time to watch Coronation Street, have a few drags on a Pete

Stuyvesant and a well-deserved glass of Amontillado! Woe betide anyone who disturbed this rare chance for a

respite from the hectic pace of her day!

Mrs Forbes always played a full part in the life of the school, just as a mother would in her own home with her

own children, thus creating the genuine family atmosphere in the schools both at Cundall and Wellow.

Together she and Robin provided a space for young folk to find a secure foundation for life - for some in the

midst of trial and tribulation. Our gratitude will never be sufficient for all that Elspeth was to those who loved

her most dearly.

The canal trip went extremely well and the crew worked hard on the locks to ensure we made sound progress

each day and kept to schedule. We were blessed with good weather throughout the week and the children had a

great time at the Black Country Museum, especially when tucking into the Fish & Chips made with beef

dripping, and whilst spending a day at Drayton Manor Park.

I was presented with a brass compass and sundial, along with a scroll detailing the boats I had hired over the

past 25 years with Anglo-Welsh (although have been narrow boating with school parties for the past 30 years).

A lovely gesture from the company and the photograph and write-up is now on the Anglo-Welsh website.

I look forward to venturing out

on the British Waterways in the

future and Anglo-Welsh have

offered me a sound deal on my

next trip with my friends and

family.

I hope that all those children who

have enjoyed the opportunity of

experiencing life on a narrow

baot for a week go on to enjoy

future trips with their family and

friends in the future and

remember the crew they first

ventured out onto the British

Waterways with.

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Mr Larby & Mr Wilson have again been as industrious as usual

during the holiday. They have been busy enlarging the toilet spaces

in the girls’ toilets, replacing the water tank in the boys’ shower area,

marking out all the pitches and the new floor has gone down in the

Science Room. They have also tidied up a lot of areas around the

school and I trust we will all help them keep the school in a highly

presentable state. We said a fond farewell to Mr Larby at the end of

the Easter holiday and look forward to Mr Wilson keeping the school

in good working order in the future. RIGHT: Farewell to Mr Larby

Welcome Mr Bob O’Hara, the new bursar. You may well have

already spotted him around the school, especially looking at the

action on the car park in the mornings and evenings. He took up his full time role in early May. We will give

Mr Peter Moore a royal send off before half term, after he has helped Mr O’Hara gain a full understanding of

his role within the school, acquiring a full handle on the finance and business management of the site and all

the employees within it.

Baco have developed the old Library into a teaching kitchen for the future use of pupils throughout the school.

They have completed most of the walls around the swimming pool; removed the pear tree from beside the rear

fire exit and put base and first stage of the walls for the kitchen extension and rest room. The development of

the school is moving forward.

National Bronze for Wellow House

School Ski Team

It was pleasing to see Wellow enter a team

into the national Prep School Ski

Championships again this year after their

success in winning two years ago.

Four of our top skiers, Alex & Emma

Germany (who ski usually around twice a

week, at ski centres, throughout the year

and then abroad during the winter holidays)

+ Jorge and Isabel Vere-Laurie (fresh back

from their term in France, skiing each day

and competing regularly) teamed up to ski

in the competition on Monday 25th April.

They performed extremely well in their

respective age groups and as a team came

third in the rankings for schools spanning

Prep School ages 7 – 13. This bodes well

for the team over the coming years.

Jorge Vere-Laurie finished second in his

age group and he is pictured on one of his

two runs on the day.

RIGHT: Jorge gets a good low body

position for rounding a pole in the

school’s recent fine showing at the IAPS

Skiing Championships. While the school

didn’t retain the cup, the team did very

well to achieve a podium finish again.

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Scholarships

Scholarship Awards abound this year, which highlight the excellent all round education Wellow House School

provides:

Year 8

Teni Akinyosoye Academic to Oakham

Eliot Braton All Rounder to Stamford

George Coen All Rounder to Stamford

Simon Elliott-Bateman Academic Scholarship to Worksop

Augustus Haste Sports Scholarship to Oakham

Augustus Haste Sports Scholarship to Stamford

Ewan Laughton Sports Scholarship to Stamford

Felix Leckie All Rounder to Stamford

Benedict Murray Art Scholarship to Worksop

Kelsey Pearce Sports Scholarship to Repton

Kelsey Pearce Sports Scholarship to Worksop

Rhian Pedley Academic & Art Scholarship Worksop

William Stinchcombe Academic Scholarship to Worksop

Year 7

Callum Thompson Academic Scholarship to Lincoln Minster

William Hill Sports Scholarship (Golf) to Worksop

This is a fantastic achievement and the staff should be praised for preparing the pupils so well and the children

themselves for performing to potential on the day. (BOTTOM: the scholars looking proud of themselves.)

We have a number of staff leaving at the end of term: Mrs McGill, Mrs Adley, Mrs Rogerson, Mrs

Oxborough, Mrs Beardsley and Miss Grimwood. We will celebrate their contributions to the school on

Speech Day, where our guest speaker will be Mr W. Penty, Headmaster of Trent College.

I look forward to seeing all those who can make the Summer Ball this year and thank WHSPA, in advance, for

all the hard work they put into putting such a

fantastic event on. The Wellow Ball has certainly

gained recognition in the local social calendar, so

ensure you have booked your place for Saturday

25th June.

I am looking forward to seeing a good number of

Wellow children performing in the Wellow

Maypole Day celebrations – dancing around the

maypole. This is scheduled for Monday 30th May

this year and I hope they are blessed with a dry day

despite a number of the rehearsals being impacted

by rain.

The Headmaster

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Jools Constant’s Visit to Wellow

Comedian Jools Constant brought his

award-winning online safety show to the

Year 5 to 8 children on Wednesday 20th

April, before talking to a group of

twenty parents who attended his later

show. As well as making both groups

laugh, he also warned everyone about a

number of precautions we can take

online to ensure that we use the internet

and social networking sites for the great

resources that they are, rather than

putting ourselves in danger or risking

our reputations through unwise

comments or photo sharing.

The show for the parents explained the

philosophy and content of the children’s

show, before giving them some pointers as

to how best to help their children (who have never known a pre-internet world) to navigate this new section of

their lives safely. Jools also had a chat with a number of parents individually afterwards.

Thanks to all those parents who came to take advantage of this opportunity and to all the children for being an

attentive audience.

Dan O’Kane, Senior Teacher

Year 3 and 4 Trips

Year 3 and 4 had a great day out at Woolsthorpe Manor where they visited Isaac Newton’s house, made and

fired rockets and explored the experiments in the science discovery centre.

Year 3 created collages inspired by Sir Peter Blake’s exhibition on their exciting recent visit to The Harley

Gallery.

ABOVE: Scenes from the recent trip to The Harley Gallery, with everyone looking fascinated.

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ABOVE: More scenes from The Harley Gallery trip.

September’s Residential in Picardy, France

A good number of those in the current Year 6 and 7 forms have paid

their deposits for September’s exciting Wellow House first: a five day

residential to the Somme region of Northern France. Pictured here is

the lovely Chateau du Broutel where they will be based for their team

building and visits to the Somme Battlefield (in the 100th anniversary

year of the First Battle there), the French coast and market towns and

even an artisan chocolatier!

Could I remind those parents who have not yet paid that the final £350

payment is due in a cheque made out to Wellow House School by

Friday 17th June, please.

(RIGHT: I checked out all the visits & facilities over Easter.)

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Pre – Prep News

The Queen’s 90th Birthday

As part of the preparations for the Her Majesty's 90th birthday party, Year 2 children wrote letters to the Palace

asking the Queen if she would like to join us. In their letters, children asked what flavour birthday cake she

would like, what dress she may choose to wear, which are her favourite party games and whether she was

looking forward to any presents in particular, along with many more party planning questions.

The children were overjoyed to receive a reply from the royal household. As expected, Her Majesty already has

plans for the 14th June but was very grateful to receive the birthday wishes and sentiment from the school.

Easter Bonnet Parade

Just before the end of last term, the whole of Pre-Prep participated in a fabulous Easter Bonnet parade. The

children worked extremely hard to produce some creative and imaginative Easter bonnets! Well done to

everyone for an amazing

effort!

RIGHT:

Some of the wonderful

designs for Easter

bonnets that we saw in

school in March.

Pets at Home Trip

Year 2 pupils enjoyed gathering information for their non-fictional writing with a trip to pets at home. Children

looked at how information is presented and what’s included in an information leaflet before creating their own.

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Year 2 Maths Trip

Year 2 pupils enjoyed real money maths

during a recent trip to Tesco. Children had

been working on addition and subtraction

problems within £1. To make the learning

even more exciting, children went to Tesco

to spend their £1, adding up the shopping as

they went before working out the change at

the checkout. All items purchased were then

donated to the Ollerton and Boughton

Foodbank, which were gratefully received.

More Scenes from Recent Trips

Clockwise from left: Harley Gallery, Canal Trip, Harley, Tescos

twice and Warwick Castle, where the Year 7s enjoyed a history trip.

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Simon Elliott-Bateman’s 500 Word Story – Shortlisted by the Radio 2 Judges

My head scraped along the rusty metal tin-can of a car with a sickening screech. I could feel the metallic taste

of blood in my water-drained mouth. Three tall men stood over me in luxurious dark suits. Two of them had

gas masks concealing their faces. The mountainous creature in the middle however, was extremely bulky with a

heavy cigar lolling between his fat lips. He simply smiled at me, quite politely. And all because of that smile, I

knew I was in for a rollercoaster ride of torture and torment.

Enormous lights stared down at me with incredible intensity. It took me a moment to gather my bearings and

remember what had happened to me.

October 23rd 1940. It was a stormy night, all damp and dark. Lightning flashed before me as I crept slowly into

the building. I let myself show a goofy smile in gladness as I heard German voices and the sound of a radio.

This is what I had come to do. To disable the German radios in Britain. I jumped into action and took the two

men unawares. I took the remains of the men outside and hid them in the dustbin. And even that was more than

they deserved, I thought. I then leaned over the wooden table and began my work on the radio. “I’ve taken

control Churchill,” I whispered over the telecom.

“Get out of there soldier! Now! Jerrys are surrounding the building. I repeat, get out…” The iron door hit the

floor with a thud and I met the barrel of a gun aiming at my head. I dived through the boarded-up window with

extreme force, creating a wave of splinters flying in all directions. I ran headlong through the shady side-alleys,

ignoring the demands of the German spies. My heart pounded so painfully I thought it would fly out of my

mouth. My lungs throbbed. My legs trembled. My eyes closed when I received a bullet in my shoulder.

That is what happened to me. All because of that failure, I am now here. In this white room of doctors

attempting to torture England’s secrets out of me. Yet I will not yield, that was the oath I swore to myself.

Now you can call me an oath breaker. Their methods of torture were certainly undesirable. Maybe the Jerrys

will win this god-forsaken war. All I know is that I want no part in it, this was a politician war but only fought

by glory-hunting farmers and boys too young.

That night I dreamed of more torture than I had ever imagined. Or maybe it did happen. I can no longer tell

anymore. Night and day roll into each other meaninglessly. All I can do is hope and pray for my wife, Alyssa,

and my sweet son, Hugo.

I can feel the life sapping from my body, leaking its contents into the air. Maybe one day they’ll look at me like

a hero. But that day, is not today.

Great Start to the Cricket Season – U 13s, 11 As and 11 Bs Unbeaten at Half-Term

At the time of writing, the Under 13 cricket team is unbeaten, with an impressive victory over Westbourne by 6

wickets (Eliot 3 for 12, Ewan 32 n.o. and Gusto 14 n.o.) and then a much tighter affair against Grace Dieu,

eventually won by 5 runs (George 15, Eliot 11, Eliot 3 for 8, Toby 2 for 11), in which Simon and Jayden held

their nerve bowling under pressure and Ewan captained well. The Under 11s have been led well by Bradley

Lucas and both they and the Under 11 Bs remain unbeaten at time if writing. Keep it up!

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Year 7 Visit Warwick Castle

In the final week of the Easter Term, Year 7

visited Warwick Castle to complement their

studies of medieval warfare and The Wars of the

Roses. Here’s what they thought:

I loved the dungeons because they

were so scary, particularly the bit

where we got judged guilty or not

- Fred

I enjoyed the Kingmaker Tour

because it was interesting to see

how the blacksmiths made the

weapons – Devan

I remember seeing the body being

dissected in the dungeons! – Henry

I liked the maze because there

were lots of interactive bits, where you had to get your

passport stamped in different eras – Sophie and

Charlotte

I really liked the bit when we climbed the very steep

staircases to the battlements and we could see down

for miles – Una

I loved the dungeons because the plague doctor was

still in the dark for ages & then jumped at us - Verity

I liked the Kingmaker Tour, as we discovered that

ginger-haired people got to get drunk and wee into

buckets to help wash clothes! – Izzy S

I loved the dungeons because they were thrilling and

made you jump – Izzy M

The dungeons and the sweet shop were thrilling in

different ways! - Hannah

The Horrible Histories plays and the enthusiastic class

both made my day enjoyable – Mr O’Kane

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Win Hill – Year 4 trip

We went on a trip to Derbyshire to Hope Valley and also to climb a

mountain called Win Hill. It is called Win Hill because there was a

big battle with two armies, one army stayed at Lose Hill and one army

stayed on Win Hill. So basically you know who won – obviously it

was the army on Win Hill! The climb was steep. When we got to the

top, there was a beautiful view, you could see lots of buildings but

mostly fields. Whilst eating our lunch at the top, the wind was so

strong that it blew George’s cap off. However, Mrs Beldon came to

the rescue and got the hat. When we went down the mountain we had

to be quiet because the sheep were very fierce because they were

protecting their babies. We had an amazing time.

Amelia Gibson

Prunella’s Great Escape – Phoebe Skelton’s Shortlisted 500 Word

Story

Once there was a girl called Prunella. Her mum is Queen of England, they’re incredible rich. However,

Prunella isn’t an ordinary princess she’s different. She hates wearing all the fancy cloths, the fancy food, but

most of all she hates the fact she can’t go outside by herself even though she was fourteen. She always has to

be with a Royal Guard. Even if she is just going out to the garden. Prunella new this was for health and safety

reasons but Prunella’s dream is to explore the world ON HER OWN!!

Prunella had tried to escape many times but it never worked. One time she almost did it by climbing

through her bedroom window but her mum’s dog Gertie saw her and started barking (stupid dog grrrrrrrr).

Prunella’s been working on another escape plan. All she needs is a parachute that her mum has, because

she had to parachute out of a helicopter for a ceremony, and a chimney in the Castle. Now she just needs to

wait for nightfall, then ‘Operation Escape’ is go.

Night had fallen. Prunella snuck into her mum’s room and got the parachute, then found the nearest

chimney and started to climb. Prunella got out of the chimney an hour later.

When she noticed her parachute was heavier than before, Prunella looked behind her, there was a poker

from the fireplace hanging off it. It must have got caught when she was climbing up. Prunella tried to detach it

from her parachute but it was proper stuck so she left it, and double-checked her parachute was secure, and got

a big run up leapt in to mid-air and opened her parachute. “This is amazing,” whispered Prunella as quiet as she

could, still keeping in mind she’s escaping, (and there’s Guards outside the front gate).

After a while Prunella wasn’t moving anywhere because her parachute had got court on a gargoyle.

Prunella was hanging there for five minutes at the max, when suddenly a Royal Guard at the gate turned

around. Prunella panicked and did the first thing that came into her mind…which was do the Egyptian dance.

Lucky though it actually worked, the Guard didn’t notice. However, Prunella couldn’t celebrate yet she still

needs to get down. There was a tree just to the left of her if only she had a long pointy thing to attach on to the

tree so she could pull herself towards it. Suddenly something poked her bottom continuously; Prunella looked

behind her it was that poker. Prunella had forgotten all about the poker.

She got the poker, attached it to the tree, pulled herself towards the tree and grabbed onto a branch, and

took the parachute off. The tree was right next to the wall so Prunella climbed to the other side of the tree and

jumped onto the wall and climbed down it. Prunella couldn’t believe it she had actually done it she had escaped

her prison for fourteen years.

Well done to both Simon and Phoebe: two shortlisted stories for the first time for Wellow House!